Grant 302
basic and well known psychic
Keep forgetting to ask...Did you see Billy’s recent motoIQ writeup that includes some about extended ball joint geometry?
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Steveespo - is the shaft that broke on the howe ball joint? Curious what to watch for. ThanksHowe ball joints are great, until they break, which they do. I had one go and it cost me a burned out car, others have been luckier and only suffered cosmetic damage when they went off track. I know of 5 instances on "civilian" cars, don't know how many have happened to the pros. Anyway please keep an eye on them frequently, greasing and checking for play, and change them each season if you track hard 10-15 weekends a season.
The shafts failed at the bottom of the spindle, shear failure.Steveespo - is the shaft that broke on the howe ball joint? Curious what to watch for. Thanks
Thanks for the heads up.The shafts failed at the bottom of the spindle, shear failure.
Here is an excerpt from an email I got from Howe :Howe ball joints are great, until they break, which they do.
I wonder what the service life is....Here is an excerpt from an email I got from Howe :
"The Mustangs seem to have an issue with breaking the lower ball joints in competition..... From what we have seen analyzing a couple of broken ones is there is a pin or something in the upright that presses up against the stud and eventually causes a failure point."
I hear all the horror stories of the Steeda ball joint, don't hear much about the Howe ball joint. Is it because of the increased difficulty in installation of the Howe that not many use them???
Like Steve said, be proactive in maintenance.....
Why don't the OE ball joints fail at this point too ???The shafts failed at the bottom of the spindle, shear failure.
about 1 full season, they were installed beginning of 2016 season, failed 1st event in 2017.Why don't the OE ball joints fail at this point too ???
Steve, how many events/races/miles were on the Howe joints when it failed ???
...or the rear bar ???No need to change the front bar.
Because you went square or for some other reason ???I did change the rear to a 18mm bar earlier.
These are the same ball joint bodies we've used on stock cars for a zillion years. It is not uncommon to tack weld the ball joint body to the sleeve in the control arm to keep them from backing out...because they do. First day on track all 4 screw in ball joints on my SLA backed out. I torqued them all back down and now I'll check them every time the car comes back from the track. If they continue to loosen up I will be welding them. Sounds like I'll be replacing the ball joint studs every season as well. A broken ball joint can be a BIG problem.I've run these for a long time and have gone through 3 sets - I change them from time to time, or if I have an incident where I believe wear or premature failure could be possible:
I had one back out of its socket (I really need to safety wire these) - it can happen, when it came out, some wear was seen on the stud itself. I put an older spare back on the car, but at the end of this season I plan on changing both sides. They're rebuildable and I keep meaning to buy spare parts like the collars or the studs.
I've only seen 2 break in the wild - not my car - but another car had a failure (but had also recently suffered a tie rod failure which I believe led to this failure not long after). In my opinion - the best options are stock, or these howe units (and depending on how hard you are on the car, take advantage of the servicable mounting solution and replace them periodically)